Finland
is situated in the far north of Europe.
Bordered to the west by Sweden, to the north by
Norway, to the east by the Russia and to the south by the Gulf
of Finland, it is the fifth-largest country in Europe.

Visiting
Finland is like stepping into a refreshing shower on a hot day. Even in
the cultured capital, Helsinki, the air is clean, and the countryside has
a cool but seductive beauty.

Finlandís
rich, sometimes turbulent, history is revealed in its buildings:
onion-domed Orthodox churches speak of the days when it was part of Russia.

Language:
There are two official languages: Finnish, spoken by 93.4 per cent of the
population, and Swedish, spoken by 5.9 per cent of the population. English is taught as the
first foreign language.

Climate:
Temperate climate, but with considerable
temperature variations. Summer is warm with relatively mild
weather in spring and autumn. Winter, which lasts from November to
mid-March, is very cold. In the north the
snow cover lasts from mid-October until mid-May, but, in the brief Arctic
summer, there may be up to 16 hours of sunshine a day. Rainfall is
distributed throughout the year with snow in winter, but the low humidity
often has the effect of making it seem warmer than the temperature would
indicate. The Twilight
season lasts for two months in the north during winter.